NGC 2366 is a dwarf galaxy placed at a distance of 11 millions of light-years (3.4 millions of parsecs). Its irregular shape and stellar content make it similar to the Magellanic Clouds, the two irregular dwarf galaxies very close to our own. For scale, NGC 2366 is about 20 000 light-years wide, what makes it twice as large as the Large Magellanic Cloud, and four times larger than the Small Magellanic Cloud, but still classified as a dwarf galaxy...

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s most famous character, the Little Prince, lived on a volcanic asteroid whose volcanoes the Prince took care of. But real asteroids are seldom volcanic. Or are they? There are reasons to think that these objects should not be so scarce after all. Recent studies based on Calar Alto data are helping to unveil the existence of more of these volcanic tiny worlds, some of them with exotic and puzzling traits…

Andalusia has just created the first network of institutions devoted to science communication existing in Spain. This network was born on December 12th, 2007, under de auspices of the Junta de Andalucía (the regional government of the autonomous community Andalusia), and Calar Alto Observatory is one of its founder members...

The quality of the night sky at Calar Alto Observatory has been extensively analysed using many different observational techniques and with data gathered between 2004 and 2007. The conclusions indicate that Calar Alto is a dark site with a considerable fraction of useful nights for astronomical observation. The sharpness of the images (what astronomers call “the seeing”) and the overall properties of the night sky at Calar Alto place this observatory among the best sites for astronomical observations...

The autonomous community Andalusia joins the territories that acknowledge light pollution as an environmental problem, and has made its first legal steps towards the protection of night sky. A new law, just promulgated, pursues the defense of the quality of the night sky at astronomical observatories in Andalusia and, also, the reduction of light pollution in a general sense all over the autonomous community...